Ranking United States Plastic Surgery Residency Programs Based On Academic Achievement
John Lindsey, Jr., BS, Carter Boyd, BS, Claire Davis, Shivani Ananthasekar, BS, Srikanth Kurapati, MD, Timothy King, MD, Ph.D.
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
Purpose
The Doximity Residency Navigator is currently the only resource that ranks plastic surgery residency programs. Given the significant influence these Doximity rankings have on medical students applying to residency programs1,2, it is prudent to ensure that these rankings are as accurate as possible. In this study we devised a new algorithm to rank plastic surgery programs based on academic achievement.
Methods
The Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database was used to obtain the following information on plastic surgery programs: the amount of 2017 National Institute of Health and Veterans Administration funding, lifetime and 5-year faculty h-indices, and the number of faculty on editorial boards of journals. Based on all of this information, an overall ranking of the top 25 plastic surgery programs was created.
Results
The top program for annual NIH and VA funding was the University of Southern California (integrated and independent). The top programs for faculty lifetime h-index were the University of Michigan (integrated) and New York University (independent). The top program for faculty 5-year h-index was the University of Pennsylvania (integrated and independent). The top program for the number of faculty members who are on the editorial boards of major journals was Harvard University (integrated and
independent). The top program overall was Harvard University (integrated and independent)
Conclusion
We ranked plastic surgery residency programs based on objective data related to academic achievement. These rankings may be especially helpful to medical students applying to residency programs.
Table 1. Top 5 Integrated and Independent US Plastic Surgery Residency Programs Based on Annual NIH and VA funding.
| Integrated Plastic Surgery Program | Integrated Funding ($) | Independent Plastic Surgery Program | Independent Funding ($) | |
| 1 | University of Southern California | 4,190,912 | University of Southern California | 4,190,912 |
| 2 | University of Cincinnati | 2,622,548 | University of Cincinnati | 2,622,548 |
| 3 | University of Michigan | 2,461,410 | Harvard | 1,591,975 |
| 4 | UCLA | 2,264,583 | University of Pennsylvania | 369,655 |
| 5 | Stanford University | 1,639,298 | University of Pittsburgh | 292,600 |
Table 2. Top 5 Integrated and Independent US Plastic Surgery Residency Programs Based on Lifetime h-index of Faculty.
| Integrated Plastic Surgery Program | Lifetime h-index | Independent Plastic Surgery Program | Lifetime h-index | |
| 1 | University of Michigan | 19.00 | NYU | 18.12 |
| 2 | Harvard | 18.34 | Harvard | 17.68 |
| 3 | Yale | 18.33 | Emory | 17.66 |
| 4 | NYU | 18.12 | University of Pennsylvania | 15.76 |
| 175 | Stanford University | 17.95 | Johns Hopkins | 15.70 |
Table 3. Top 5 US Plastic Surgery Residency Programs Based on 5-year h-index of Faculty
| Integrated Plastic Surgery Program | 5-year h-index | Independent Plastic Surgery Programs | 5-year h-index | |
| 1 | University of Pennsylvania | 9.41 | University of Pennsylvania | 9.41 |
| 2 | University of Michigan | 8.86 | Johns Hopkins | 8.30 |
| 3 | Johns Hopkins | 8.30 | Harvard | 7.83 |
| 4 | Harvard | 7.83 | NYU | 7.24 |
| 5 | Stanford University | 7.70 | UT Southwestern | 5.83 |
Table 4. Top US Plastic Surgery Residency Programs Based on Faculty Position on Major Journal Editorial Boards
| Rank | Integrated Plastic Surgery Program | Number of journal editorial boards staffed by faculty | Rank | Independent Plastic Surgery Program | Number of journal editorial boards staffed by faculty |
| 1 | Harvard | 24 | 1 | Harvard | 24 |
| 2 | Cleveland Clinic | 12 | 2 (tie) | Johns Hopkins | 8 |
| 3 | Stanford University | 10 | 2 (tie) | University of Pittsburgh | 8 |
| 4 (tie) | Johns Hopkins | 8 | 4 | University of Florida | 7 |
| 4 (tie) | University of Pittsburgh | 8 | 5 (tie) | Emory, UC Davis, NYU | 6 |
Table 5. Top 25 US Integrate and Independent Plastic Surgery Programs based on Overall rankings.
| Integrated Plastic Surgery Program | Independent Plastic Surgery Program | |
| 1 | Harvard | Harvard |
| 2 | Stanford University | University of Pennsylvania |
| 3 | University of Michigan | University of Pittsburgh |
| 4 | UCLA | NYU |
| 5 | University of Pennsylvania | Johns Hopkins |
| 6 | Washington University in St Louis | University of Southern California |
| 7 | NYU | University of Cincinnati |
| 8 | Johns Hopkins | Emory University |
| 9 | University of Pittsburgh | University of Florida |
| 10 | Duke University | UC Davis |
| 11 | Ohio State University | Vanderbilt University |
| 12 | University of Cincinnati | UT Southwestern |
| 13 | UC San Francisco | University of Utah |
| 14 | Emory University | Jackson Memorial |
| 15 | Cleveland Clinic | Cooper University Hospital Program |
| 16 | University of Southern California | University of Virginia |
| 17 | Northwestern | University of Illinois Chicago |
| 18 | Yale | Iowa |
| 19 | Baylor | Dartmouth |
| 20 | University of Chicago | Rush University |
| 21 | UT Southwestern | University of Alabama at Birmingham |
| 22 | University of Washington | LSU |
| 23 | University of Florida | Indiana University |
| 24 | Texas A & M / Scott and White | Lahey Clinic Program |
| 25 | University of Kentucky | Temple University |
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